Texas governor and former GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry became the highest-ranking Republican official to throw his support behind arming teachers and administrators in the aftermath of the tragic shooting in Sandy Hook elementary school.

During a Tea Party event in North Richland Hills, Texas, Perry “urged legislators to look at ways to improve safety at schools” and examine mental health issues, but insisted that local districts — and not the state or federal government — “should be allowed to decide their own gun policies”: